The overall goal of the Metrics & Health Services Research (MHSR) Core of the DRTC is to provide the expertise and infrastructure required to create new knowledge in the prevention and control of diabetes and cardiometabolic disease; and effectively and reproducibly implement developed prevention and control strategies. Arising from over-arching programmatic needs at the national level that are clearly perceived by the DRTC's research base, the MHSR Core's 5 Specific Aims are to provide: (1) Access to state-of-the-art measurement tools in the domains relevant to diabetes prevention and control research, e.g. assessments of diet and nutrition, physical activity, behavioral/psychosocial factors, health related quality of life, and healthcare quality; (2) Design, data management, and analytic support, including econometric capacity; (3) Access to large pre-existing national datasets for secondary data analyses to test hypotheses in the prevention and control of diabetes and cardiometabolic disease; (4) Development of methodological innovations in diabetes prevention and control research; and (5) Effective implementation and dissemination support for maximizing the knowledge produced by the DRTC research base. The MHSR Core is directed by two national leaders in health services research (Kiefe) and diabetes epidemiology (Lewis), and will contain three service units, Psychosocial/Behavioral, Design/Data Management & Analysis, and Health Services Research. Core services are based on the expressed needs of funded DRTC Members, and methods will rely on state-of-the-art measurement approaches with a very high priority given to data quality control. A well-defined reporting structure, clear system of prioritization, and pre-defined chargeback system will ensure the Core's viability. State-of-the-art tools in health services and epidemiology research have tremendous potential to advance diabetes prevention and control, and the NIH Roadmap agenda of translation from bench to bedside to community. The MHSR Core will make cutting-edge expertise in these areas newly available to the DRTC research base, expanding the scientific armamentarium and capacity of diabetes researchers at UAB.